Lewis ruled earlier this month that the Florida Legislature's congressional map violated the 2010 anti-gerrymandering reforms voter passed, thanks to evidence presented at trial that a handful of GOP political operatives had gamed the system to get more favorable maps submitted to the Legislature.

But now that ruling is running into the realities of the political calendar. With a primary slated for next month, thousands of absentee and overseas ballots already mailed, and a slate of candidates already lined up, lawyers for the Legislature and county election supervisors said unhinging that process now would cause chaos.

"We could have a new map tomorrow, and we still don't have enough time for this election," said Raoul Cantero, a former Florida Supreme Court justice and lawyer for the Senate.

Lewis also said he was unclear he had the ability to draw a new map himself, or the legal power to re-schedule a federal election. Legislative lawyers said he was bound by the dates specified in federal law; the groups that challenged the maps argued he had all the precedent he needed to either push back the Nov. 4 general election or schedule additional special elections early next year.

"I'm extremely skeptical that I can do what the plaintiffs are asking," Lewis said at the end of a three-hour hearing Thursday.

His ruling found fault with only two congressional seats held by Reps. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, and Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden.

Lawyers for the League of Women Voters of Florida and other plaintiffs argued Thursday that lawmakers shouldn't get a second-bite at drawing the map, and the court should require a re-arranged election schedule this year with a new map.

They have proposed their own options for new maps, and pushing back elections to fill the new seats to as late as March 2015.

"In about eight or nine days, we pulled together a remedial map, which is not an easy task," said plaintiff lawyer John Devaney.

"The overriding interest here is to find a map and impose a map that is constitutional. ... Today's the day to do it."

But legislative lawyers said they would fight any attempt to allow the courts to re-draw the map, labeling the plaintiff's map equally partisan.

They also pointed to a top priority of the plaintiff map: taking apart Brown's currently meandering seat that stretches from Jacksonville to Orlando. The plaintiff plan would shift Brown's district from Jacksonville to Tallahassee, instead of Orlando.

"They blow up the map. They blow up the map for political purposes," said George Meros, a lawyer for the Florida House.

Doing so, Meros argued, was a way for "distributing African Americans into districts that will elect white Democrats."

But League lawyer David King shot back the proposed map they submitted still kept black voting-age population about 45 percent -- down from the 50 percent in Brown's current seat -- and did so with a "much more compact configuration of districts."

The problem with the calendar, he argued, was created by the Legislature when it drew faulty maps.

"They don't seem to be willing to show any energy or effort to try and face and deal with the problem when it is reasonable to do that," King said.

"It isn't going to be easy to fix this problem. It's going to require some effort. They seem to think they have a right to have a normal election even though they've enacted an unconstitutional map."

The League plan would also box off Webster's sprawling Polk to Orlando seat by removing a "finger-like appendage" which the court found improperly packed white Republicans in his district.

King said afterward his side was not "giving up."

Brown, meanwhile, released a statement claiming the lawsuit was "part of a bigger movement to diminish congressional districts represented by minorities across the nation."

"And the plan is that if they are successful in Florida, they will continue to attack minority seats and minority voting rights in every state throughout the nation," she said.

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's fight over "fair" congressional lines has left policymakers and the court in a paradox: should they require voters throughout Central Florida to cast ballots on illegal maps, or invalidate some votes already cast?

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